page_title: Percy Hobart
section_title: 79th Armoured Division
hierarchical_section_title: Percy Hobart / Second World War / 79th Armoured Division
caption_attribution_description: English: I suggest that this logo qualifies for use under condition 3, ie it was demonstrably in use during WWII Folks at 137 06:05, 26 May 2007 (UTC) Bulls head. 79th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)
context_page_description: Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart KBE, CB, DSO, MC, also known as "Hobo", was a British military engineer noted for his command of the 79th Armoured Division during World War II. He was responsible for many of the specialised armoured vehicles that took part in the invasion of Normandy and later actions.
context_section_description: The Dieppe Raid in August 1942 had demonstrated the inability of regular tanks and infantry to cope with fortified obstacles in an amphibious landing. This showed the need for specialised vehicles to cope with natural and man-made obstructions during and after the Allied invasion of Europe.
  In March 1943, Hobart's 79th Armoured was about to be disbanded, due to lack of resources, but the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), General Sir Alan Brooke, in a "happy brainwave", invited Hobart to convert his division into a unit of specialised armour. Hobart was reputedly suspicious at first and conferred with Liddell Hart before accepting, with the assurance that it would be an operational unit with a combat role.  The unit was renamed the "79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers". Unit insignia was a black bull's head with flaring nostrils superimposed over a yellow triangle; this was carried proudly on every vehicle. Hobart's brother-in-law, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, informed the American general Dwight D. Eisenhower of his need to build specialised tanks.
  Under Hobart's leadership, the 79th assembled units of modified tank designs collectively nicknamed "Hobart's Funnies". These were used in the Normandy landings and were credited with helping the Allies get ashore. The 79th's vehicles were offered to all of the forces taking part in the landings of Operation Overlord, but the Americans declined all except the amphibious Sherman DD tank. Liddell Hart said of him: "To have moulded the best two British armoured divisions of the war was an outstanding achievement, but Hobart made it a "hat trick" by his subsequent training of the specialised 79th Armoured Division, the decisive factor on D-Day."
  The vehicles of the 79th did not deploy as units together but were attached to other units.  By the end of the war the 79th had almost seven thousand vehicles.  The 79th Armoured Division was disbanded on 20 August 1945.
  Hobart returned to retirement in 1946 and died in 1957 in Farnham, Surrey.
  A barracks in Detmold, Germany, was named after him.  Hobart Barracks has since been handed back to the German government and no longer functions as a barracks.
caption: Badge of the 79th Armoured Division
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